Daily Smart Fact #26: Fear Factor ain’t got nothin’ on you. I guarantee you are eating insects.

Takeaway: For every chocolate bar you eat, the FDA allows you to consume 60 insect parts.  That’s 60 little insect legs…yum, protein!

So I thought this was common knowledge (being this brilliant keeps me in a bubble sometimes…JOKE) but after talking to some folks, I realized that some people may still be surprised that the FDA provides allowances for insect parts in foods, including chocolate.  Not only insect parts but rodent hair – yay!  I’m not one to get disturbed by this, I figure every bite of insect just toughens up my body in preparation for other horrific things (like giving birth to the world’s largest baby).

For your amusement (if you dare), here’s a list of other FDA allowances (from The FDA Handbook)

• 60 insect parts per 100 grams of chocolate: What does that even mean?  It means nothing until I took a bite into a chocolate bar yesterday and realized that 100 grams is the size of a regular Godiva chocolate bar.  I’m not usually that shi shi but it was free, and my Korean butt can’t say no to free.
• Fly eggs in fruit juices: 5 Drosophila and other fly eggs per 250 ml or 1 or more maggots per 250 ml.  Drink Odwalla juice?  The usual bottle size is 450ml – that means there could be close to 10 fly eggs in that bottle. (This fear mongering is making me feel like Dr. Oz)
• Parasites in Red Fish and Ocean Perch: 3% of the fillets examined contain 1 or more parasites accompanied by pus pockets…I don’t know what that means but the word “pus pockets” made me want to share. You’re welcome.

So what does this all mean?  Probably nothing except that we eat a lot of crap.  So the lesson today, kids, is don’t eat more crap than you really have to.  Say no to junk food, processed foods, and soda!